(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an aircraft having a cockpit with optimized outside visibility, and to the method applied for optimizing said outside visibility of a pilot.
(2) Description of Related Art
The invention thus lies in the technical field of aircraft cockpits, and more particularly of rotorcraft cockpits.
An aircraft usually has a plurality of instruments providing indications to a pilot. By way of example, there may be navigation instruments or indeed instruments for monitoring a power plant.
Old generation rotorcraft are used essentially for visual flight rules (VFR) flights. Such rotorcraft have relatively few on-board instruments arranged on an instrument panel. In a cockpit having two seats side by side and separated by an inter-seat space, the instrument panel is situated in a central zone of the cockpit extending the inter-seat space. Forward visibility for a pilot is then relatively good.
New generation rotorcraft make it possible to perform instrument flight rules (IFR) flight. Under such circumstances, these rotorcraft have a greater number of instruments. The instrument panels have thus been extended transversely.
Rotorcraft are thus known having an instrument panel extending on either side of a central zone so as to carry instruments in front of a pilot. The pilot's visibility towards the outside of the cockpit on the forward axis of the rotorcraft is thus obstructed by said instrument panel, at least in part.
In order to authorize IFR flights and in particular to do so independently of outside conditions (bad weather, poor visibility, . . . ), rotorcraft have thus been fitted specifically with new instruments, in ever greater numbers, tending to limit the outside visibility of a pilot. Nevertheless, for most of the time, the aircraft flies under VFR conditions.
Consequently, the prior art describes aircraft giving good outside visibility but a narrow mission spectrum, and aircraft providing moderate outside visibility but with a wider mission spectrum.
In particular, documents U.S. Pat. No. 3,572,615 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,899 present an airplane having an instrument panel and an instrument box arranged above the level of a pilot's eyes in order to avoid obstructing the pilot's field of view.
Instruments may also be fastened on a bar extending in elevation.
Document US 2012/0217345 describes a cockpit having a central console arranged in the extension of an inter-seat space. The floor of the cockpit presents observation means in the inter-seat space to give the pilot a field of view underneath the aircraft.
Document GB 491 358 presents a cockpit defined in particular by a transparent bubble.
Document FR 2 965 248 presents an instrument panel.
Document FR 2 465 641 is remote from the technical field of the invention. That document FR 2 465 641 describes a wheelhouse for a boat having instruments that are fastened to a ceiling.
Initially, a large amount of equipment (air conditioning system, . . . ) that used conventionally to be positioned in the nose of an aircraft, behind conventional instrument panels, was moved into the cabin (or hold). That has made potential outside visibility greater. Nevertheless, potentially bulky and heavy connections might then need to run along the inside of the aircraft.